A bandaged Bertram misses the direct pass to the BCL Top 16 by just one point: Manresa overturns the -17 of the first leg in the thrilling finale
BAXI Manresa – Bertram Derthona 100-82
(28-15, 50-35, 76-62)
Manresa: Bishops, Reyes 14, Massa 4, Steinbergs 9, Sagnia 5, Hustak, Saint-Supery 16, Alston 16, Ibanez ne, Obasohan 25, Perez 7, Cate 4. Coach Ocampo.
Bertram: Zerini 1, Vital ne, Kuhse 11, Candi 5, Denegri 9, Strautins 21, Baldasso 4, Kamagate 4, Biligha 8, Severini 3, Josovic ne, Weems 16. Coach De Raffaele.
Referees: Anaya (PAN), Aunkrogers (LAT), Matejek (CZE).
By just one point of difference in the overall head-to-head count, Bertram Derthona fails to qualify for the Top 16 of the Basketball Champions League. In the decisive match at BAXI Manresa's home, the Bianconeri fail to defend the +17 from the first leg, losing 100-82 at the hands of the Spaniards, who in the last round of Group G of the top European club competition of FIBA grab a direct pass to the second group stage at the photo finish, recovering in the standings at 10 points and overtaking Tortona for better basket difference compared to the 102-85 of last October in Casale. Like last year, to go to the Round of 16, Derthona will have to go through the Play-In, a best-of-three series against the third team in Group H (still to be defined) with the advantage of the home court starting from game-1 scheduled for January 7-8.
Bertram tried to overcome the emergency in the Catalan trip, which began under the bad auspices of the double absence of two of its Americans, Gorham due to the injury suffered three days earlier with Treviso and Vital due to a physical problem suffered on the eve of the game. The problems in the black and white house worsened due to the start of the game all dominated by Manresa, who soon reached a double-digit lead by attacking the game with determination (19-6 at 6'), also taking advantage of the two sudden fouls by Kamagate that further weakened the long sector in front of the much wider rotations of BAXI. The first time that Manresa overturned the -17 of the first leg came at the hands of the ex on duty, Obasohan, with the triple of 50-32 with 34" to go in the first half, which however ended with the basket from beyond the arc by Denegri in the last action for the 50-35 at half time.
After having also reached -22 (69-47) suffering the plays in particular of Saint-Supery, from the middle of the third quarter Tortona suddenly finds energy, five free throws and a triple by Weems make them return to the "Top 16 zone" with 74-62 at 33" from the last mini-break, with Biligha fighting effectively under the basket. The hopes of a comeback grow decisively during the last quarter, a penetration by Strautins, the dunk by Kamagate on an assist by Kuhse, followed by a triple by the American point guard, give Bertram the illusion that they are at -9 with 2'45" to go, 85-76. Tortona is still at a comforting -12 with a minute and a half to go, 91-79, but Alston's triple, a free throw by Reyes and a turnover at half court by Kuhse under pressure from Obasohan, who scores and is fouled in the ensuing counterattack, give Manresa back the qualification with 27" to play given the 98-79 on the scoreboard. Tortona roars again, Strautins' very difficult triple "gives back" the qualification with 13" to go, Manresa time-out who, upon returning, finds two points from under the basket by Steimbergs with 4" to go. They will be the decisive ones because from the throw-in after Bertram's time-out in the Spanish half court Kuhse does not score the three-pointer that would have changed the history of the group.
STATEMENTS In the post-match press conference they introduced themselves Kyle Weems and the coach Walter De Raffaele: “Congratulations to Manresa, they deserved the victory and the qualification, we also deserved it because we improved our performance during the match”, the comment of the American wing, second scorer of the team with 16 points behind the 21 of Strautins. “We certainly knew it would be a battle, having lost by 17 in Tortona they in front of their fans would have done everything to overturn the result, we fought to get back into the game and in the end we lost direct qualification by a hair's breadth. But our season is certainly not over, I am one of the leaders of the team, we will form a group to start again, face the Play-In and obviously first the championship commitments".
“As Kyle rightly said, congratulations to Manresa but we deserved to go directly to the second phase in the same way for how we responded in the third and fourth quarters,” says De Raffaele. "We made some stupid mistakes at some crucial moments, in the end we were lacking in very small details, but I think what was really lacking was our impact at the beginning of the match to not end it with one point of difference in the double confrontation. We should have been more ready to respond and instead we struggled to do so, the response came more from the second lines than from the starting five. Unfortunately we arrived at the challenge in bad shape, we were missing two Americans, Gorham and Vital, the latter due to a problem suffered on the eve of the match. This defeat is a pit stop that can happen but we continue to work”.
